Have you ever wondered why it takes such a long period of time for NASA to build space exploration equipment? What is involved in manufacturing and building a rover for the Red Planet? During this lesson, students will discover the journey that a Mars rover embarks upon after being designed by engineers and before being prepared for launch. Students will investigate the fabrication techniques, tolerance concepts, assembly and field-testing associated with a Mars exploratory rover.

Ever wanted to take your students on an exciting journey? What if you could take that journey from the comfort of the classroom or out-of-school learning environment? Welcome to Mission to Mars!

Over the course of these lessons, you and your students will learn about and plan a mission to Mars. Your students will apply their creativity and science and math knowledge to explore the Red Planet. Not a scientist or engineer? That's okay! You're going to learn everything you need to know while preparing for and conducting these lessons. And you actually already have some engineering skills, whether you know it or not.

In this unit, students learn about Mars, design a mission to explore the planet, build and test model spacecraft and components, and engage in scientific exploration. The unit takes students through seven stages, including learning about the planet, planning the mission, designing the spacecraft, launching, landing, surface operations, and sample handling.

This lesson will start with a brief history of robotics and explain how robots are beneficial to science and society. The lesson then will explore how robots have been used in recent space exploration efforts. The engineering design of the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, will be used as prime examples. Finally, the maneuverability of their robotic arms and the functionality of their tools will be discussed.